More responsive Pléiades receiving stations

The Direct Tasking Kit enables station operators to submit tasking requests up to just 20 minutes before the satellite comes within range. It thus increases station responsiveness, allowing:

adjustments for local weather conditions

near-real-time application support

fast, up-to-the-minute decision-making.

Pléiades Direct Tasking sequence

Direct Tasking sequence

The kit interface is easy to use, offering an intuitive architecture and fast response times:

an orbital slot is reserved;

the tasking plan is fine-tuned up to 20 minutes before acquisition;

the tasking plan is uploaded to the satellite;

the satellite acquires data and downloads them simultaneously to the station;

data products are generated automatically and ready for use just 30 minutes after acquisition;

in all, it takes no more than 1 hour from tasking request to receipt of ready-to-use imagery.

Pléiades Direct Tasking Kit team

Site acceptance of Direct Tasking kit

Development of the kit began in September 2010.
It was built by Zodiac Data Services (ZDS), overseen by CNES on behalf of Astrium Services. Dubbed S-band kit or 2-GHz kit by developers, it is the final link in the Direct Tasking chain. The latest innovations to the kit were signed off and qualified on 18 and 19 February.